I need to put up my sparring trophies... I pulled them down to show them to Ali and Laris when they came over. My brother has some trophies too, from Tae kwon do and also maybe I think for soccer or something. I'm pretty proud of those trophies. First and second place. Somehow I look at them and think 'See, I'm not just an inactive geek, I can do physical things if I want to.'

Though to be honest I have totally forgotten most of the patterns. The only one I can still NAME is Song-song. But I remember how to spar and I remember most of the sparring rules. I loved sparring. It's so much fun, even though my favorite Tae kwon do move--the flying kick--is not something you can feasibly do to someone in a fight. Of course Emiko will never let me forget the time we sparred each other and she knocked the wind right out of me, to the point where I was on the ground, totally unable to breathe. I tell you, that was scary. I could absolutely not breathe. It was my own fault--I think I essentially ran into her foot.

But I'm pretty good at sparring, and pretty good at fighting physically in general, probably because of my brother. We fight a lot less than we used to, but we would go at it when we younger (and by younger I mean up to fourteen and fifteen years old).

However, though I like fighting, though I like engaging in a fight, I dislike such sports as boxing. I find boxing barbaric, because of the lack of rules. There's no respect. In a martial arts fight there are rules. There is respect. You respect your opponent even if you must beat the crap out of him for the trophy. And make no mistake--sparring, even with rules and pads (and we wear a lot of pads--hands, feet, head gear, mouth guard, etc), can get dangerous. Bones (jaws most commonly) can be broken, noses bloodied, etc. Naturally this tended to happen with the older age groups, people who hit harder and faster, so it wasn't something I had to worry about, but like I just related to you, I have gotten the wind knocked out of me and I've knocked the wind out of others.

The other thing I miss about Tae kwon do was breaking boards. Damn, it's so much fun to punch or kick through a board. It just makes you feel strong, I guess. Kicking through two and three boards is even better, because regardless of how strong the wood was you think to yourself 'Jesus, look what I did! I kick ass!' It makes you feel good about yourself. Even if you sometimes end up with a scraped ankle or hand due to a messy break. :3;